Shared by Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel
Shared by Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel
Lox Bowl
Yield: 4 servings
Lox Bowl
Yield: 4 servingsFamily Journey
Hiroshima, Japan and Long Island, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Relying on the bonito-cured lox recipe and several others in their new cookbook Love Japan: Recipes from Our Japanese American Kitchen including sumeshi sushi rice and chile mayo (Kewpie mayonnaise with Sriracha and rice vinegar), the lox bowl can really take many forms depending what toppings you feel like adding, authors and partners Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi explain.
At home, Sawa and Aaron often riff on this version depending on their mood and what they have on hand. Consider doing the same, especially after pulling off the version here.
Read more about Sawako “Sawa” Okochi and Aaron Israel’s family story in The Couple Behind Shalom Japan and the Dish That Started It All.
Ingredients
- 6 cups sushi rice, freshly made*
- 1 pound Bonito-Cured Lox, thinly sliced
- 2-4 tablespoons Chile Mayo, to taste
- 1 avocado, thinly sliced
- Sweet Kombu
- 1 small cucumber, preferably Japanese, cut into 1/8 inch slices
- ¼ cup Japanese pickles, such as takuan (yellow daikon) or kyurizuke (cucumber)
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained
- ½ bunch cilantro leaves, including some of the tender stems
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup ikura (salmon roe), or more to taste
- ¼ cup shredded nori, or a sheet of sushi nori cut into very thin strips using kitchen shears
* You can also pick up prepared sushi rice at your favorite local Japanese restaurant.
Preparation
Step 1
Distribute the rice equally among four shallow bowls. Cover in an even layer of lox, dividing the slices equally among them. Using a squeeze bottle or a spoon, drizzle the chile mayo over the lox.
Step 2
Divide the avocado slices, sweet kombu, cucumber, pickles, capers, cilantro, scallions, ikura, and shredded nori equally among the bowls. You can arrange them whichever way you like, but we usually place them in clusters going clockwise: First the avocado, then the sweet kombu, followed by the cucumber and pickles.
Step 3
Sprinkle the capers and cilantro around the rim, and place the scallions and ikura in two mounds in the center. Crown them with the shredded nori and serve.
